Joseph Sikora thinks Tommy 'could die at any moment' on 'Power Book IV: Force' (original) (raw)
Joseph Sikora says he and the Power Universe have learned a valuable lesson that we can all get behind: "Just give them Tommy."
Thankfully, they're doing exactly that with arguably the most anticipated Power spin-off, Power Book IV: Force, which is centered on Sikora's fan-favorite Tommy Egan.
"The audience has told us, 'Listen, we're up for whatever you give us, but we'll follow Tommy wherever he goes,'" says Sikora. "I was walking through Bed-Stuy the other day and I had a bunch of teens that were, like, 'Yo, Tommy, when's the show dropping?!' And that was as cool to me as this older couple that I met yesterday at a bar. After they paid their bill, they looked over and said, 'Excuse me, Joseph, we just wanted to say we're big fans and can't wait for Force to come out in February.' Like, wow, it's such a blessing for everybody involved, especially me, the range of the permeation of the Tommy character and the expansiveness of people that are like, 'I get this guy,' and I think they get him because Tommy is a very exposed character. Not because he is exposed and becomes soft to the people he's with, but because when we have those times of Tommy alone, where he's not presenting himself in the streets, people can really see themselves in that, because we all have to be somebody else in public and somebody else in private. People can relate to his internal struggle."
In Force, we'll be following Tommy to Chicago. After losing both his best friend and the love of his life, he leaves New York, the only city he's ever known, and on the way to Los Angeles makes a quick detour to close a decades-old wound. But the quick stop suddenly brings to light family secrets that Tommy thought were long buried.
"When people ask, 'What was your favorite [_Power_] episode,' I often say it was season 5, episode 9, ["There's a Snitch Among Us"] which is where Tommy kills his father," Sikora shares. "It's really heavy in terms of the emotional composition of the character and going through what makes him tick. So I thought that there was a lot more to explore with who this guy is. Why does he really click with the people? Why is he the people's champ, for all intents and purposes? And to really rediscover that. So I was interested to find Tommy when he has nothing, how he rebuilds as he leaves New York, and what this new environment would bring to the character."
But don't just assume that the "beautiful backdrop" of Chicago is Force's permanent environment. When suggested that it seems plausible that Tommy could become the Jack Reacher of TV gangsters, roaming the country and getting sucked into trouble all over, Sikora agrees.
"Tommy brings the heart and emotion of South Side Jamaica, Queens, wherever he goes, much in the way that [Force producer] 50 Cent does," says Sikora, who starred opposite Tom Cruise in the 2012 film Jack Reacher. "That is a very important aspect. And there's a lot to be discovered in a city like Chicago that's so rich with, not only history, but also gangsterism. But so does New Orleans, Cleveland, Miami, Los Angeles. Depending on how things turn up in Chicago, if Tommy survives Chicago, if he becomes the king of Chicago, if he has to leave Chicago, why can't he go and step out of that? All of those things are definite possibilities."
Starz
Sadly, that's not the only radical possibility. Force is the third Power spin-off, but the first without a character name in the title, following Power Book II: Ghost and Power Book III: Raising Kanan. So, why Force instead of Tommy?
Sikora ominously teases, "I think that it opens up the possibility that Tommy could die at any moment."
Power Book IV: Force premieres Sunday on Starz.
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